Once director John Carney will make his US film debut in January with Town House, in which the son of a dead rock star has lived as a recluse by selling off his father's memorabilia. When that well dries up and the son is forced to sell his townhouse, he has to come to terms with himself and his role as a father to his own teenager.
The screenplay is by Doug Wright, the Tony award-winning playwright of I Am My Own Wife. Ridley and Tony Scott's company, Scott Free, is producing Town House for Fox 2000, a division
of 20th Century Fox. Another division, Fox Searchlight, released Once in the US, where it has taken more than $5m at the boxoffice.
Stars sign up for futuristic spectacular
Oscar-winning actors Tim Robbins and Martin Landau have joined Bill Murray and Saoirse Ronan in City of Ember, currently shooting in Belfast. The cast also includes Marianne Jean-Baptiste, from Secrets & Lies and the TV series Without a Trace, along with Toby Jones, who played Truman Capote in the recent Infamous.
Cattrall, Radcliffe in Dublin-shot drama
Having worked here on John Boorman's The Tiger's Tail last year, Kim Cattrall returns to Dublin for My Boy Jack, which began shooting this week. It features Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe as the missing son of Rudyard Kipling and his wife, played by David Haig and Cattrall. The director is Brian Kirk, who made Middletown.
Best of Brando
Marlon Brando, who died three years ago this month, is the subject of an 11-film retrospective at the Irish Film Institute next month. The enticing line-up features his debut movie, The Men, along with The Wild One, On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire, One-Eyed Jacks, Mutiny on the Bounty, Last Tango in Paris, The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. Completing
the season are two of his most underrated movies: Gillo Pontecorvo's colonialism drama, Queimada (aka Burn!), accompanied by a terrific Ennio Morricone score, and Arthur Penn's stylish western The Missouri Breaks, starring Brando (with a peculiar Irish accent) and Jack Nicholson.
Small Engine Q&A
Following tonight's 8.50 showing of Small Engine Repair (reviewed on page 12) at the IFI, writer- director Niall Heery, producers Tristan Orpen Lynch and Dominic Wright and cast members will take questions from the audience. www.irishfilm.ie
John Connolly's Irish correspondent
Director John Moore, a native of Dundalk, has been corresponding online with Dublin author (and former Irish Times journalist) John Connolly about plans to film Connolly's seventh novel, The Book of Lost Things, which deals with a boy mourning the loss of his mother and retreating into a fantasy world. Moore's recent film, The Omen, also deals with a disturbed boy - who turns out to be the devil incarnate.
Moore, director of Behind Enemy Lines and The Flight of the Phoenix, wrote on Connolly's website: "Dear John, My name is John Moore, I'm Irish, I make movies and I totally get what you mean when you say it's nice to be nominated for anything in your home country. Before I rest in the cold cold ground I want to see The Book of Lost Things made into a film . . . assuming (and I hope it's not a rude assumption) that you would like to see it made into a film. Cheers. John Moore."
Connolly responded: "Wow, John Moore! Flattered that you know my books. It's nice to see an Irish director who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty with a little populist entertainment, and who makes such good-looking films. Long may you run . . . "
mdwyer@irish-times.ie
